Departamento de El Progreso

From Flores we moved onto Lanquín for tubing, caving, and Semuc Champey.

It took us eight hours on the bus but the time was passed playing 'would you rather' and annoying every other passenger with our inappropriately loud conversations. We were pumped to have arrived in Lanquín and got a shuttle up the hill to our hostel, Zephyr Lodge. The setting of the hostel was amazing - set in between the hills of the Guatemalan highlands. We were excited to be there and had a really fun first night at the hostel.

The next day we woke up and did the tubing but Al wasn't able to come because she had spent most of the night over the toilet being sick (a sign of things to come).

I've done tubing before in Colombia, but this was different because the current was a lot stronger and you had to be careful of falling into trees. I had loads of fun but getting out of the river was so stressful because of the current. I ended up falling out of my tube, hitting a tree trunk and losing all my beer. After that we got back to the hostel in the afternoon and carried on the drinking by the pool, as the sun was out.

The day after we did the day trip to Semuc Champey. First we went to the Kaa'mba caves, where we did caving. At first I found this mildly terrifying because you have to swim through caves which are pitch black, so you have to hold a candle to light the way. As we went further into the cave I chilled a bit more, and it was good fun because you went really deep in and saw waterfalls. The way back was equally as intense because I was at the front and didn't have any light in front to help lead the way.

After a BBQ lunch we walked up to a viewpoint to see the natural waterfalls and pools of Semuc Champey. They were really pretty, and the countryside around it is really beautiful too. We then walked down and were able to swim in them for a while. After we got the shuttle back and spent the evening playing cards and other games.

The next day we were supposed to be getting the bus to Antigua, but a lot of us had got ill after eating the food at Zephyr. Lottie was too ill to take the 12 hour bus to Antigua, and after a pretty stressful morning we decided to stay in Lanquín for another night and see if she was better the next day. Three of us had to move hostels because there wasn't any more room at Zephyr.

Luckily it was a really sunny day, so while Lottie slept it off we spent the day by the pool getting tans. In the eve we had a pretty chill evening because we were all really tired and wanted to be on top form to made sure we got the bus the next day.

The next day, Lots had recovered enough to get the bus, but it was Laura's turn to feel sick. Despite all the illness, and having to squeeze onto the bus and share seats because the bus company had oversold tickets, we managed to get the bus to Antigua second time round. After everyone hyping up the journey as one of the worst things they'd ever done we were pretty happy to arrive in Antigua only 9 hours later (instead of the 12 hours everyone has said) in high spirits.Read more